


smells like home

by OceanMyth



Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Oneshot, The Jasmine Dragon (Avatar), Uncle Iroh gives the best hugs, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, heavy is the head that wears the crown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26237737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceanMyth/pseuds/OceanMyth
Summary: Zuko hides in the pantry at the Jasmine Dragon after a particularly rough meeting.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2113209
Comments: 15
Kudos: 139





	smells like home

The pantry at the Jasmine Dragon smells like Uncle, Zuko notes. A mix of teas and spices, familiar teas and spices, teas and spices that he could probably name if he wanted to. But he doesn’t have the energy to pick out individual smells right now, and he pulls his knees up to his chest and wedges himself more firmly in the corner.

He's in Ba Sing Se attending  _ another  _ peace summit, after the Earth Kingdom had decided that the previous treaty wasn’t humiliating enough for the Fire Nation. He understood that they wanted revenge, but the Fire Nation was struggling with the transition from a wartime economy to a peacetime one—he just didn’t have anything more to  _ give _ ! Not without hurting his people, and he’s not willing to hurt his people any more than they already are. He’s not willing to pile economic struggles on top of the monumental grief of his nation, a nation finally allowed to weep for it’s lost sons and daughters, children sacrificed on the pyre of arrogance and pride that belonged to  _ his family— _

The meeting went badly. He’d expected it, but somehow it still left him feeling like a failure. Like this was a task beyond someone like him, like he’s failing his people, like he shouldn’t have— Zuko stops, and closes his eyes. Breathes. He’s doing the  _ best he can _ , and it doesn’t feel like enough. He’s never enough.

He had slipped out of the back of the Royal Palace after the meeting, going down into the city, and through the back door of the Jasmine Dragon. He didn’t even bother to change—Zuko reaches up and pulls his golden hairpin out of his phoenix tail, and hurls it across the pantry, aiming at the bare wall. It would be rude to break any of Uncle’s jars of tea.

The hairpin falls to the ground with a quiet clang.

He buries his head further into his knees. He’s crunched up in a gangly knot of limbs on the floor in the back corner of the pantry now, trying to calm down. He takes a deep breath and slowly exhales, closes his eyes as the smell of the pantry surrounds him.

It's not the pantry though. It’s Uncle. 

Zuko breathes easily for the first time since leaving the meeting, and leans into the hug.

**Author's Note:**

> lil bit of practice at writing Zuko-- tell me how I did


End file.
